The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-08-29
THE FRENCH WOMAN.
Max ORell Draws a Charming and
True Picture Of His Countrywomen.

True Picture Of His Countrywomen.
From the Philadelphia Press
In the French household the woman is
queen Her empire over her children is
perfect, and she leads her husband by the
nose. He does not complain of this; on the
contrary, he enjoys it, and he thinks that,
after all, much worse might happen to him.
The wife knows all her husbands affairs,
and when he has a few savings to invest he
does not think it beneath him to ask her ad-
vice. She knows, as well AS he, the current
price of stocks at the Bourse, and if he
should be seized with apruriency to embark
in speculation she brings to bear all her in
fuence over him to induce him to buy con-
soils or any other government securities
Call on her husband on business and if he is
from home you will not need to make a sec
ond visit ON that account. She has all the
affairs of the firm at her fingers end Every
housekecper keeps a memorandum book
in which she writes down all her ex-
penses.
The French woman has a genius for cook
ely and is thoroughly awake to the fact
that it is good policy in married life to see
that her husband dimes well. The politics
of matrimony is a science inborn in our
women Let Frenchwomen be rich or poor
the mistress of a mansion in the Champs
Elysees, or of a poor tifth-f1oor little fat at
Montmartre or Batignolles-she has always
the charm of feminality. She is always
smart always alert, and has little flutter-
ing, busting way with her that is bound to
keep awake your interest in all she does
She may be sometimes little affected, but
she is never vulgar. On Sundays and holt
DAYS she dresses still a little more elegantly
than usual, but she never appears to be in
Sunday clothes. The middle class French
woman is lady-like, not only in her dress,
but in her speech. You will never see her
loaded with cheap jewelry, this great
stamp of vulgarity and when she speaks
to YOU you can not guess whether she is
the wife of gentleman or of a small trades
man.
have often heard French women called
frivolous. But this is the height of absur-
dity. If frivolity consists in trying to re-
main young and attractive as long as posi-
BILE then the French bourgeois is frivolous
If, again, frivolity consists in making a
husband from being absorbed by the cares
of business, then she is frivolous. If this
woman were frivolous how could you ex-
plain the alteration for the mother which,
even to the lowest of the low, you find in
French children? How could this be unless
she were the example of all domestic viz
tues! If Frenchman of 40 would hesitate
to take an important step III life without
first consulting his mother surely it must be
that he recognizes i'll her a wise guide. 1t
would be no mere naivetee on my part to
dwell longer on the absurd charge of frivol-
ity Take now the Shopkeeping classes.
There you will see the wife, the active part
ner of her husband Behold them both as
the commercial traveller displays his goods
on the counter. She is not a mere house
keeper, with or without wages; she is part
IL -
not only enables her, if she happens to be-
come a widow, to carry on the business
without her husband, to be Independent
and to bring up her children. She has not,
to obtain her living on her husbands
death, to become a working housekeeper
or a nurse; she is the mistress of her own
house as before, and now the head of the
firm.
You can not obtain perfect notion of
French industry unless you pay visit to
our peasantry l must say that now the
woman ceases to be attractive She does
not even attempt to look SO. Sunburnt,
hale and hearty, behold her, dear English
tourist, that is the fortune of France. She
does not wear fringes on her forehead, |
will admit, she does not wear founces on a
secondhand shirt, or a hat with flowers and
feathers, and she totally ignores one franc
diamonds. She has a coarse serge gown on
y
tidy and the personification of industry. |
do not doubt, however that, thanks to the
blessings of gratuitous and compulsory edu-
cation, the time will soon come when she
will want to initiate the ladies of the town
in her habits and dress, and that her sons
will despise the dear land where they were
born and will all want to be clerks and
swagger in town with high stand-up col
lars, tight trousers and sticks Thank good
ness, this spectacle is not yet to be seen in
France
This good, Woodworking, thrifty woman
is the backbone of the country. The amount
of work she can get through is simply pro-
digious You will always see her busy,
either working in her field, selling the pro-
duce of her little farm in the market-place of
the nearest town or engaged about her little
household She is not attractive, but she is
a picture of health and contentment Shares
or bonds NAV coup or down without dis
turbing her peace; she holds none. She
trusts her savings to nobody Bankers,
She thinks, company directors and stock
brokers may be very respectable persons,
but when the old stocking is swollen with
Of. pieces she rounds off her little family do
main and buys a new field, something She is
quite sure to find in its place when she wakes
up in the morning
Let me give you an example of her fru-
gality, and allow me to take it from q per-
sonal recollection My mother has house
maid who has been with her twenty-five
years. Not long ago, while in France,
took aside this old servant II know how
devoted you have been to my mother" |
said to her. ''You are not strong, and
dare say you will not wish to go into SER
vice again; but make yourself easy about
this. If anything should happen to my
mother, shall see that you are comfortable
for the rest of your life. But" l said in
quiringly, II have no doubt you have some
thing of your own by this time" Imagine
mysurprise when heard her tell me she
had saved over l0,000f. between $4,000 and
$4,000 all well invested, including one share
In the Suez Canal Company.
In society French lady plays her part
with the same excellence that she shows in
other stations of life. 1t is true that here
and there you will come across a French
woman, bitten with new-fangled notions
dlscoursing of politics, the moral and intel
iectual progress of the people, social eman-
clpation and other tedious topics; but such
black sheep are rare; the great majority are
content to play their natural part, to be the
ornaments of society, to bring to social in
tercourse the tact, grace and harmony
&c 81 aIan